Gé-Karel van der Sterren
Darker Gardens
September 12 – October 19, 2002
Henry Urbach Architecture
526 West 26th Street NYC NY 10001
tel: (212)627-0974
hua@mindspring.com
Gé-Karel van der Sterren, Untitled (2002), oil and acrylic on canvas, 120 cm x 100 cm
Darker Gardens is the first American exhibition of paintings by Gé-Karel van der Sterren. Stained with acrylic and oil, often smooth, sometimes drippy, his canvases entangle us in a world darkened by fantasies, dreams and foreboding. Van der Sterren offers up subjects that seem to embody temptationnubile adolescent bodies, luscious fruit pastries, animals grazing in sylvan fieldsand imbues them with a complex emotional life. Bodies come eviscerated or bandaged; cakes sag and ooze; landscapes are overgrown, flooded, or rotting. Van der Sterren’s pictures, at once playful, enigmatic and twisted, present us with an earthly Eden well into its Fall.
Gé-Karel van der Sterren was born in the Dutch town of Stadskanaal in 1969 and currently lives and works in Amsterdam. He has exhibited extensively in the Netherlands and Europe, and his work was the subject of a solo exhibition last year at the Gemeentemuseum Helmond. His work is held in numerous public collections, including the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, the ABN/AMRO and Rabobank collections, the Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, and the Museum De Lakanhal in Leiden.
This exhibition has been made possible with generous support from the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, and the Consulate General of the Netherlands, New York.
For further information and images, please contact the gallery at (212) 627-0974.
